A Handbook of the English Language

by R. G. Latham

1. The king he is just.

2. I saw her, the queen.

3. The men, they were there.

4. The king, his crown.

Of these forms, the first is more common than the second and third, and the fourth more common than the first.

[§ 437]. The fourth has another element of importance. It has given rise to the absurd notion that the genitive case in -'s (father-'s) is a contraction from his (father his).

To say nothing about the inapplicability of this rule to feminine genders, and plural numbers, the whole history of the Indo-Germanic languages is against it.

1. We cannot reduce the queen's majesty to the queen his majesty.

2. We cannot reduce the children's bread to the children his bread.

3. The Anglo-Saxon forms are in -es, not in his.